Atlanta-based sludge/progressive metal outfit Mastodon formed in 1999 around the talents of guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds,
drummer BrannDailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, and guitarist Bill Kelliher. One of the more notable New Wave of American
Heavy Metal actsâ€“a genrespawned in the mid '90s by bands like Pantera, Biohazard, and MachineHeadâ€.
Mastodon 's innovative, lyrically astute brandof progressive metal has helped position the band as one ...read more

Atlanta-based sludge/progressive metal outfit Mastodon formed in 1999 around the talents of guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds,
drummer BrannDailor, bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, and guitarist Bill Kelliher. One of the more notable New Wave of American
Heavy Metal actsâ€“a genrespawned in the mid '90s by bands like Pantera, Biohazard, and MachineHeadâ€.
Mastodon 's innovative, lyrically astute brandof progressive metal has helped position the band as one of the most successful,
respected metal groups of the early 21st century.

Formed out of a mutual admiration for the Melvins, Black Sabbath, Neurosis and Thin Lizzy, Mastodon
signed withRelapse Records (Today Is the Day, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Coalesce, Burnt by the Sun) in 2001, on
the strength of a four-songdemo. The EP "Lifesblood" arrived that same year, followed by the group's full-length debut,
"Remission", in 2002. The album made big wavesin the metal community, but it wasn't until 2004's critically acclaimed
"Leviathan" that Mastodon began to enter the collective consciousness ofthe mainstream music community. As polished and
melodic as it was brutal and genre-defying, Leviathan, loosely based on author HermanMelville's classic novel Moby Dick,
signaled a turning point in the band's career, appearing on many critics' year-end Top Ten lists across themusical spectrum.

Mastodon's newfound popularity eventually landed them a deal with Warner Bros. Records, but not before fulfilling their contract
with Relapseby releasing "Call of the Mastodon", a remastered version of the group's first two demo EPs featuring previously
unreleased material, and"Workhorse Chronicles", a DVD that chronicled the band's story thus far with interviews and concert
footage. The band's third album, 2006's"Blood Mountain", debuted at number 32 on the Billboard charts & received a warm
critical reception, and lead single "Colony of Birchmen"received a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance.

After extensive touring in support of Blood Mountain, Mastodon released "Crack the Skye" in 2009. In addition to being their
most technicallycomplex work to date, Crack the Skye was also Brann Dailor's debut as co-lead vocalist, partially because many
of the album's lyrics dealt withthe suicide of Dailor's younger sister at age 14. The follow-up to Crack the Skye, "The Hunter"
arrived in 2011, and while it surpassed itspredecessors commercially, it received middling reviews and was criticized by many
fans for embracing a less technical style and for MikeElizondo's sleek, radio-friendly production style.

Later in 2011, Troy Sanders took some time out from the band, forming the metal supergroup Killer Be Killed with [L]The
Dillinger EscapePlan[/L] vocalist Greg Puciato, Soulfly's Max Cavalera, and former Mars Volta drummer Dave Elitch.
He worked with the group onand off for the next few years; their debut album was eventually released in 2014. Mastodon was
still a priority,however. After touring Europeand South America in 2012, they started work on their sixth album the following year
with producer Nick Raskulinecz. The album, "Once More'Round the Sun", was released in June 2014, preceded by the sludgy
single"High Road." « hide